Senate Throws Out Padded N143 Billion FIRS Budget

Olufemi Samuel, Abuja

Senate on Thursday stood down consideration of report on the N143.722 billion 2016 budget of the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS), sensing irregularities bothering on multiple allocations to same items.

The report submitted by the committee on Finance to the Senate for consideration was faulted all through by senators who alleged that bogus estimates made by the FIRS and approved by the committee led by Senator John Enoh (PDP Cross River Central).

Against this background, the Senate directed its committee on finance to carry out the needed thorough scrutiny of the budget proposal which stood in excess of N2billion under the projected available fund of N146.165billion against the estimated fund of N143.722billion.

The Senate had earlier in July, received the 2016 budget estimates of FIRS for consideration and passage via a letter sent to it to that effect by President Muhammadu Buhari and mandated its committee on finance to scrutinize the proposals and make report on them for consideration.

The lawmakers blamed the finance committee for simply copying the budget proposal of N146, 165,108, 293 billion and forwarding same for Senate consideration without deleting the areas of duplication and padding.

The Senate warned that the days when a partially prepared budget is sent to it for adoption were over.

Some of the multiple allocations spotted in the FIRS rejected budget are N440million earmarked for office materials and supplies, N68 million estimated for library books and periodicals, N530million projected for computer materials and supplies, all under the N3.348billion voted for materials and supplies –General.

Others are maintenance of office furniture and equipment- N90million,

Maintenance of building office- N300million, maintenance of office equipment – N266million, maintenance of computers and IT equipment – N120million, maintenance of plants/generators N 170million etc.

Aside multiple votes for same or similar items spotted across the 24 sub-heads in the budget, some outrageous estimates were also observed to have been made by the agency for some other items and not in any way, questioned by the committee.

Other outrageous estimates include maintenance of plants/generators- N170 million, cleaning and fumigation services N750 million, security vote- N250 million, legal services N500 million.

Others are motor vehicle fuel cost N700million, generator fuel cost N750million,

Refreshment and meals-N586million, publicity, advert and tax payers education N2billion, medical expenditure N700million.

Rejecting the report, the Senate President, Bukola Saraki, expressed regrets that the committee’s recommendations tallied completely with all figures proposed by the agency.

He stressed the need for a thorough job to be done to ascertain the figures for revenue generation as well as capital projects.

Saraki frowned at the late submission of budgets of government departments and agencies, especially revenue generating agencies.

He warned that the budgets of special agencies not included in the yearly budget, must be submitted not later than the first quarter of the year.

“I will partly blame these things on the late submission of budgets. This practice where government agencies send their budgets late to the National Assembly and expect them to be passed immediately will not be tolerated.

“They must submit their budgets early so that we can have enough time to work on their proposals. If we do that, these issues we have here will not arise. The relevant committees should take note of that and ensure that right thing is done,” he said.